Climate expert Dr James Hansen: public lecture Monday 16 May

Scientist and climate change expert Dr James Hansen will speak on human-made climate change as a moral, political and legal issue at a public lecture on Monday 16 May hosted by Victoria University’s Institute of Policy Studies.

Dr Hansen is the Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's Earth Institute. He is the author of Storms of my Grandchildren and is probably best known for being one of the first scientists to bring global warming to the world's attention, when he delivered Congressional testimony on climate change in the 1980s.

Dr Hansen, whom Time magazine named as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2006, argues that climate change is a broad issue that needs to be solved on a number of fronts.

"Human-made climate change is a moral issue. It pits the rich and the powerful against the young and the unborn, against the defenseless and against nature. Climate change is a political issue. But politics fails when there is a revolving door between government and the fossil fuel-industrial complex. Climate change is a legal issue. The judiciary provides the possibility of holding our governments accountable for their duty to protect the public interest."

Dr Hansen is visiting New Zealand this month and giving a range of talks throughout the country.

While in Wellington, he will also speak at a symposium on ‘The Future of Coal’ on Tuesday 17 May. In recent years, he has argued strongly that the use of coal must be phased out rapidly, unless it includes carbon capture and storage.

Public lecture by Dr James Hansen—Human-Made Climate Change: A Moral, Political and Legal Issue
Monday 16 May 2011, 5.45pm-7.30pm
Rutherford House Lecture Theatre One, 23 Lambton Quay, Wellington
All are welcome to attend this free lecture

The Mayor of Wellington, Celia Wade-Brown will be present to welcome and introduce Dr Hansen.

Symposium on the Future of Coal
Tuesday 17 May 2011
Ilott Theatre, Wellington Convention Centre
www.ips.ac.nz

About Dr James Hansen
Trained in physics and astronomy, Dr Hansen has been an active researcher in planetary atmospheres and climate science for nearly 40 years, with the last 30 years focused on climate research, publishing more than 100 scholarly articles.

Elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 1995, Dr Hansen has received numerous awards, including the WWF Conservation Medal from the Duke of Edinburgh, the American Geophysical Union's Roger Revelle Medal, and the Heinz Environment Award.

In addition to numerous testimonies given to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, Dr Hansen twice made presentations to President George W. Bush Administration's cabinet level Climate and Energy Task Force, chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney.